hands.* The officer, however, who had thus seasonably interposed, acted from his care of the public peace, with the preservation of which he was charged, and not from any favour to the apos tle, or indeed any disposition to exercise either justice or humanity towards him: for he had no sooner secured his person in the fortress, than he was proceeding to examine him by torture.t

From this time to the conclusion of the history, the apostle remains in public custody of the Ro man government. After escaping assassination by a fortunate discovery of the plot, and delivering himself from the influence of his enemies by an appeal to the audience of the emperor, he was sent, but not until he had suffered two years' im

dungeon, and their feet made fast in the stocks.* | Notwithstanding this unequivocal specimen of the usage which they had to look for in that country, they went forward in the execution of their errand. After passing through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica; in which city, the house in which they lodged was assailed by a party of their enemies, in order to bring them out to the populace. And when, fortunately for their preservation, they were not found at home, the master of the house was dragged before the magistrate for admitting them within his doors.t Their reception at the next city was something better: but neither had they continued long before their turbulent adversaries, the Jews, excited against them such commotions amongst the in-prisonment, to Rome. He reached Italy, after a habitants, as obliged the apostle to make his escape by a private journey to Athens. The extremity of the progress was Corinth. His abode in this city, for some time, seems to have been without molestation. At length, however, the Jews found means to stir up an insurrection against him, and to bring him before the tribunal of the Roman president. It was to the contempt which that magistrate entertained for the Jews and their controversies, of which he accounted Christianity to be one, that our apostle owed his deliverance.ll

tedious voyage, and after encountering in his passage the perils of a desperate shipwreck. But although still a prisoner, and his fate still depending, neither the various and long continued sufferings which he had undergone, nor the danger of his present situation, deterred him from persisting in preaching the religion; for the historian closes the account by telling us, that, for two years, he received all that came unto him in his own hired house, where he was permitted to dwell with a soldier that guarded him, "preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence."

This indefatigable teacher, after leaving Corinth, returned by Ephesus into Syria; and again visited Now the historian from whom we have drawn Jerusalem, and the society of Christians in that this account, in the part of his narrative which re city, which, as hath been repeatedly observed, still lates to Saint Paul, is supported by the strongest continued the centre of the mission. It suited corroborating testimony that a history can receive. not, however, with the activity of his zeal to re- We are in possession of letters written by Saint main long at Jerusalem. We find him going Paul himself upon the subject of his ministry, and thence to Antioch, and, after some stay there, either written during the period which the history traversing once more the northern provinces of comprises, or if written afterwards, reciting and Asia Minor.** This progress ended at Ephesus; referring to the transactions of that period. These in which city, the apostle continued in the daily letters, without borrowing from the history, or the exercise of his ministry two years, and until his history from them, unintentionally confirm the success, at length, excited the apprehensions of account which the history delivers, in a great vathose who were interested in the support of the riety of particulars. What belongs to our present national worship. Their clamour produced a tu- purpose is the description exhibited of the apos mult, in which he had nearly lost his life.tt Un-tle's sufferings: and the representation, given in dismayed, however, by the dangers to which he saw himself exposed, he was driven from Ephesus only to renew his labours in Greece. After passing over Macedonia, he thence proceeded to his former station at Corinth. When he had formed his design of returning by a direct course from Corinth into Syria, he was compelled by a conspiracy of the Jews, who were prepared to intercept him on his way, to trace back his steps through Macedonia to Philippi, and thence to take shipping into Asia. Along the coast of Asia, he pursued his voyage with all the expedition he could command, in order to reach Jerusalem against the feast of Pentecost.§§ His reception at Jerusalem was of a piece with the usage he had experienced from the Jews in other places. He had been only a few days in that city, when the populace, instigated by some of his old opponents in Asia, who attended this feast, seized him in the temple, forced him out of it, and were ready immediately to have destroyed him, had not the sudden presence of the Roman guard rescued him out of their

the history, of the dangers and distresses which he underwent, not only agrees, in general, with the language which he himself uses whenever he speaks of his life or ministry, but is also, in many instances, attested by a specific correspondency of time, place, and order of events. If the historian put down in his narrative, that at Philippi, the apostle "was beaten with many stripes, cast into prison, and there treated with rigour and indignity; we find him, in a letter to a neighbouring church,** reminding his converts, that, "after he had suffered before, and was shamefully entreated at Philippi, he was bold, nevertheless, to speak unto them (to whose city he next came) the Gospel of God." If the history relate,tt that, at Thessalonica, the house in which the apostle was lodged, when he first came to that place, was assaulted by the populace, and the master of it dragged before the magistrate for admitting such a guest within his doors; the apostle, in his letter to the Christians of Thessalonica, calls to their remembrance "how they had received the Gospel in much affliction." If the history deliver an ac

count of an insurrection at Ephesus, which had nearly cost the apostle his life; we have the apostle himself, in a letter written a short time after his departure from that city, describing his despair, and returning thanks for his deliverance. If the history inform us, that the apostle was expelled from Antioch in Pisidia, attempted to be stoned at Iconium, and actually stoned at Lystra; there is preserved a letter from him to a favourite convert, whom, as the same history tells us, he first met with in these parts; in which letter he appeals to that disciple's knowledge "of the persecutions which befell him at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra." If the history make the apostle, in his speech to the Ephesian elders, remind them, as one proof of the disinterestedness of his views, that, to their knowledge, he had supplied his own and the necessities of his companions by personal labour; we find the same apostle, in a letter written during his residence at Ephesus, asserting of himself, that even to that hour he laboured, working with his own hands."§

the Romans, in a piece very little connected with historical recitals, thus speaks: "Such as have behieved and suffered death for the name of Christ, and have endured with a ready mind, and have given up their lives with all their hearts."*

Polycarp, the disciple of John (though all that remains of his works be a very short epistle,) has not left this subject unnoticed. "I exhort (says he) all of you, that ye obey the word of righteousness, and exercise all patience, which ye have seen set forth before your eyes, not only in the blessed Ignatius, and Lorimus, and Rufus, but in others among yourselves, and in Paul himself and the rest of the apostles; being confident in this, that all these have not run in vain, but in faith and righteousness; and are gone to the place that was due to them from the Lord, with whom also they suffered. For they loved not this present world, but Him who died, and was raised again by God for us."+

Ignatius, the contemporary of Polycarp, recog. nises the same topic, briefly indeed, but positively These coincidences, together with many rela- and precisely. "For this cause, (i. e. having felt tive to other parts of the apostle's history, and all and handled Christ's body after his resurrection, drawn from independent sources, not only confirm and being convinced, as Ignatius expresses it, both the truth of the account, in the particular points by his flesh and spirit,) they (i. e. Peter, and those as to which they are observed, but add much to who were present with Peter at Christ's appearthe credit of the narrative in all its parts: and sup-ance) despised death, and were found to be above port the author's profession of being a contemporary of the person whose history he writes, and, throughout a material portion of his narrative, a companion.

it."

Would the reader know what a persecution in these days was, I would refer him to a circular letter, written by the church of Smyrna soon after the death of Polycarp, who, it will be remembered, had lived with Saint John; and which letter is en

What the epistles of the apostles declare of the suffering state of Christianity, the writings which remain of their companions and immediate follow-titled a relation of that bishop's martyrdom. "The ers, expressly confirm.

sufferings (say they) of all the other martyrs were Clement, who is honourably mentioned by Saint blessed and generous, which they underwent acPaul in his Epistle to the Philippians, hath left cording to the will of God. For so it becomes us, us his attestation to this point, in the following who are more religious than others, to ascribe the words: "Let us take (says he) the examples of power and ordering of all things unto him. And our own age. Through zeal and envy, the most indeed who can choose but admire the greatness faithful and righteous pillars of the church have of their minds, and that admirable patience and been persecuted even to the most grievous deaths. love of their Master, which then appeared in them? Let us set before our eyes the holy apostles. Peter, Who, when they were so flayed with whipping, by unjust envy, underwent, not one or two, but that the frame and structure of their bodies were many sufferings; till at last, being martyred, he laid open to their very inward veins and arteries, went to the place of glory that was due unto him. nevertheless endured it. In like manner, those For the same cause did Paul, in like manner, re- who were condemned to the beasts, and kept a ceive the reward of his patience. Seven times he long time in prison, underwent many cruel torwas in bonds; he was whipt, was stoned; he ments, being forced to lie upon sharp spikes laid preached both in the East and in the West, leav- under their bodies, and tormented with divers ing behind him the glorious report of his faith; other sorts of punishments; that so, if it were posand so having taught the whole world righteous-sible, the tyrant by the length of their sufferings, ness, and for that end travelled even unto the ut- might have brought them to deny Christ."S most bounds of the West, he at last suffered martyrdom by the command of the governors, and departed out of the world, and went unto his holy place, being become a most eminent pattern of patience unto all ages. To these holy apostles were joined a very great number of others, who, having through envy undergone, in like manner, many pains and torments, have left a glorious example to us. For this, not only men, but women have been persecuted; and, having suffered very grievous and cruel punishments, have finished the course of their faith with firmness."T

CHAPTER V.

There is satisfactory evidence that many, professing to be original witnesses of the Christian miracles, passed their lives in labours, dangers, and sufferings, voluntarily undergone in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, and solely in consequence of their belief of those accounts; and that they also submitted, from the same motives, to new rules of conduct.

Ox the history, of which the last chapter contains an abstract, there are a few observations which it may be proper to make, by way of applying its testimony to the particular propositions for which we contend.

fects were certainly these, of which this history sets forth the cause, and origin, and progress. It is acknowledged on all hands, because it is recorded by other testimony than that of the Christians themselves, that the religion began to prevail at I. Although our Scripture history leaves the that time, and in that country. It is very dif general account of the apostles in an early part of ficult to conceive how it could begin, or prevail at the narrative, and proceeds with the separate ac-all, without the exertions of the Founder and his count of one particular apostle, yet the informa- followers, in propagating the new persuasion. tion which it delivers so far extends to the rest, as The history now in our hands describes these exit shows the nature of the service. When we see ertions, the persons employed, the means and enone apostle suffering persecution in the discharge deavours made use of, and the labours undertaken of his commission, we shall not believe, without in the prosecution of this purpose. Again, the evidence, that the same office could, at the same treatment which the history represents the first time, be attended with ease and safety to others. propagators of the religion to have experienced, And this fair and reasonable inference is confirm was no other than what naturally resulted from ed by the direct attestation of the letters, to which the situation in which they were confessedly we have so often referred. The writer of these placed. It is admitted that the religion was letters not only alludes, in numerous passages, to adverse, in a great degree to the reigning opinions, his own sufferings, but speaks of the rest of the and to the hopes and wishes of the nation to apostles as enduring like sufferings with himself. which it was first introduced; and that it over"I think that God hath set forth us the apostles threw, so far as it was received, the established last, as it were, appointed to death; for we are theology and worship of every other country. We made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, cannot feel much reluctance in believing that, and to men;-even unto this present hour, we when the messengers of such a system went both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are about not only publishing their opinions, but colbuffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; and lecting proselytes, and forming regular societies labour, working with our own hands: being revil- of proselytes, they should meet with opposition in ed, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being their attempts, or that this opposition should somedefamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of times proceed to fatal extremities. Our history the world, and as the offscouring of all things unto details examples of this opposition, and of the sufthis day."* Add to which, that in the short ac- ferings and dangers which the emissaries of the count that is given of the other apostles in the for- religion underwent, perfectly agreeable to what mer part of the history, and within the short pe- might reasonably be expected, from the nature of riod which that account comprises, we find, first, their undertaking, compared with the character two of them seized, imprisoned, brought before the of the age and country in which it was carried on. Sanhedrim, and threatened with further punish- IV. The records before us supply evidence of ment; then, the whole number imprisoned and what formed another member of our general propo beaten ; ‡ soon afterwards, one of their adherents sition, and what, as hath already been observed, stoned to death, and so hot a persecution raised is highly probable, and almost a necessary conse against the sect, as to drive most of them out of quence of their new profession, viz. that, together the place; a short time only succeeding, before with activity and courage in propagating the re one of the twelve was beheaded, and another sen-ligion, the primitive followers of Jesus assumed, tenced to the same fate; and all this passing in the single city of Jerusalem, and within ten years after the Founder's death, and the commencement of the institution.

II. We take no credit at present for the miraculous part of the narrative, nor do we insist upon the correctness of single passages of it. If the whole story be not a novel, a romance; the whole action a dream; if Peter and James, and Paul, and the rest of the apostles mentioned in the account, be not all imaginary persons; if their letters be not all forgeries, and, what is more, forgeries of names and characters which never existed; then is there evidence in our hands sufficient to support the only fact we contend for (and which, I repeat again, is in itself highly probable,) that the original followers of Jesus Christ exerted great endeavours to propagate his religion, and underwent great labours, dangers, and sufferings, in consequence of their undertaking.

III. The general reality of the apostolic history is strongly confirmed by the consideration, that it, in truth, does no more than assign adequate causes for effects which certainly were produced, and describe consequences naturally resulting from situations which certainly existed. The ef

upon their conversion, a new and peculiar course of private life. Immediately after their Master was withdrawn from them, we hear of their "con tinuing with one accord in prayer and supplica tion;"* of their "continuing daily with one accord in the temple;" of "many being gathered together praying." We know what strict injunctions were laid upon the converts by their teachers. Wherever they came, the first word of their preaching was, Repent!" We know that these injunctions obliged them to refrain from many species of licentiousness, which were not, at that time, reputed criminal. We know the rules of purity, and the maxims of benevolence, which Christians read in their books; concerning which rules, it is enough to observe, that, if they were, I will not say completely obeyed, but in any de gree regarded, they would produce a system of conduct, and what is more difficult to preserve, a disposition of mind, and a regulation of affections, different from any thing to which they had hitherto been accustomed, and different from what they would see in others. The change and distinction of manners, which resulted from their new character, is perpetually referred to in the letters of their teachers. "And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in *Acts i. 14. + Acts ii. 46. † Acts xii. 12.

tian miracles, passed their lives in labours, dangers, and sufferings, voluntarily undergone in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, and solely in consequence of their belief of those accounts; and that they also submitted, from the same motives, to new rules of conduct.

times past ye walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience; among whom also we had our conversation in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."*"For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the WHEN We consider, first, the prevalency of the gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, religion at this hour; secondly, the only credible excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abomi- account which can be given of its origin, viz. the nable idolatries; wherein they think it strange activity of the Founder and his associates; thirdly, that Iye run not with them to the same excess of the opposition which that activity must naturally riot." Saint Paul, in his first letter to the Co- have excited; fourthly, the fate of the Founder of rinthians, after enumerating, as his manner was, a the religion, attested by heathen writers as well catalogue of vicious characters, adds, "Such were as our own; fifthly, the testimony of the same some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanc-writers to the sufferings of Christians, either contified." In like manner, and alluding to the temporary with, or immediately succeeding, the same change of practices and sentiments, he asks original settlers of the institution; sixthly, predicthe Roman Christians, "what fruit they had in tions of the sufferings of his followers ascribed to those things, whereof they are now ashamed?"§ the Founder of the religion, which ascription The phrases which the same writer employs to alone proves, either that such predictions were de describe the moral condition of Christians, com-livered and fulfilled, or that the writers of Christ's pared with their condition before they became Christians, such as "newness of life," being "freed from sin," being "dead to sin;" "the destruction of the body of sin, that, for the future, they should not serve sin;" "children of light and of the day," as opposed to "children of darkness and of the night;"" not sleeping as others;" imply, at least, a new system of obligation, and, probably, a new series of conduct, commencing with their conversion.

The testimony which Pliny bears to the behaviour of the new sect in his time, and which testimony comes not more than fifty years after that of St. Paul, is very applicable to the subject under consideration. The character which this writer gives of the Christians of that age, and which was drawn from a pretty accurate inquiry, because he considered their moral principles as the point in which the magistrate was interested, is as follows:-He tells the emperor, "that some of those who had relinquished the society, or who, to save themselves, pretended that they had relinquished it, affirmed that they were wont to meet together, on a stated day, before it was light, and sang among themselves alternately a hymn to Christ as a god; and to bind themselves by an oath, not to the commission of any wickedness, but that they would not be guilty of theft, or robbery, or adultery; that they would never falsify their word, or deny a pledge committed to them, when called upon to return it." This proves that a morality, more pure and strict than was ordinary, prevailed at that time in Christian societies. And to me it appears, that we are authorized to carry this testimony back to the age of the apostles; because it is not probable that the immediate hearers and disciples of Christ were more relaxed than their successors in Pliny's time, or the missionaries of the religion, than those whom they taught.

life were induced by the event to attribute such predictions to him; seventhly, letters now in our possession, written by some of the principal agents in the transaction, referring expressly to extreme labours, dangers, and sufferings sustained by themselves and their companions; lastly, a history purporting to be written by a fellow-traveller of one of the new teachers, and, by its unsophisticated correspondency with letters of that person still extant, proving itself to be written by some one well acquainted with the subject of the narrative, which history contains accounts of travels, persecutions, and martyrdoms, answering to what the former reasons lead us to expect: when we lay together these considerations, which taken separately, are, I think, correctly, such as I have stated them in the preceding chapters, there cannot much doubt remain upon our minds, but that a number of persons at that time appeared in the world, publicly advancing an extaordinary story, and for the sake of propagating the belief of that story, voluntarily incurring great personal dangers, traversing seas and kingdoms, exerting great industry, and sustaining great extremities of ill usage and persecution. It is also proved, that the same persons, in consequence of their persuasion, or pretended persuasion, of the truth of what they as serted, entered upon a course of life in many res pects new and singular.

From the clear and acknowledged parts of the case, I think it to be likewise in the highest degree probable, that the story, for which these persons voluntarily exposed themselves to the fatigues and hardships which they endured, was a miraculous story; I mean, that they pretended to miraculous evidence of some kind or other. They had nothing else to stand upon. The designation of the person, that is to say, that Jesus of Nazareth, rather than any other person, was the Messiah, and as such the subject of their ministry, could only be founded upon supernatural tokens attributed to him. Here were no victories, no conquest, no revolutions, no surprising elevation of fortune, no achievements of valour, of strength, There is satisfactory evidence that many, pro- or of policy, to appeal to; no discoveries in any fessing to be original witnesses of the Chris-arts or science, no great efforts of genius or learn

CHAPTER VI.

Eph. ii. 1-3. See also Tit. iii. 3. † 1 Pet. iv. 3, 4.
+ 1 Cor. vi. 11.
§ Rom. vi. 21.

ing to produce. A Galilean peasant was announced to the world as a divine lawgiver. A young man of mean condition, of a private and simple life, and